Question by mrsgrant978: Is my climbing joseph’s coat rose bush dead?
I planted two beautiful large joseph’s coat rose bushes last August, one by my fireplace and another by my door. The one by the door has greener stems than the one by the fireplace. I am worried that the one by the fireplace is dead. It is pretty brown, I can’t see any green on it, but I am wondering if it just isn’t time for it to come back to life, since I live in southwest Michigan and it is only March. (My Oso-Easy roses already have leaves on them, but these two climbing roses haven’t started to get leaves or anything.) Also, the one by the fireplace, probably got more water because the drips from our roof fall right near it.
Best answer:
Answer by Oya Yansa
You can prune a branch or two to see if the stem looks healthy. I’d give it another 3 weeks from now since your Oso-Easy has already budded out. Do not prune the climber now because it blooms on new wood and you don’t want to cut this year’s blooms off. You can try a liquid fertilizer at half strength to give it a boost.
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